No One Escapes Cidhna Mine

No One Escapes Cidhna Mine is a quest which starts immediately upon being arrested in the city of Markarth, though you may first have to complete The Foresworn Conspiracy. It is quite self explanatory, and quite rewarding, well worth it.

Objectives

(Option 1)

Ask a prisoner about Madanach

Get past Borkul the Beast

Talk to Madanach

Hear Braig's story

Return to Madanach

Kill Grisvar the Unlucky

Follow Madanach

Kill Madanach

(Option 2)

Search Madanach's body

Read Madanach's note

Escape Cidhna Mine

Walkthrough

The first thing you'll need to do is talk to the prisoner named Uraccen by the campfire and ask about Madanach, the leader of the forsworn who's also in prison. You'll find out that he has a body guard named Borkul the Beast.

There are several ways to get past Borkul, you can go get a shiv (small, concealable weapon) for him, or you can try to intimidate him or pursuade him, or you can challenge him to a brawl, all achieve the same result.

Should you opt to get a shiv first, follow the marker and talk to Grisvar who will then ask you to fetch some skooma from Duach. Persuade or intimidate the latter then deliver the skooma to Grisvar to obtain your shiv.

Option 1:

Madanach then tells you to go listen to a story from one of the prisoners, just follow your compass. then Madanach will tell you that you need to eliminate Grisvar the Unlucky who you retrieved the shiv from if that's the method you chose. There are a few ways to do this of course, a few examples are a shiv or a pickaxe, etc.

Finally return to Madanach and he will ask you to help him and the other imprisioned forsworn to escape from the prison

Follow him to the exit, just before you part, he will give you all of your stuff you had before you got arrested and also a unique armour set called Armor of the Old Gods

Note: If you want, you can kill Madanach after receiving armor set, before he leaves the door. His allies will come back, and may bring along some Markath guards who will attack you so be careful. You can run back deep in the ruins until they give chase. However, once you have reached the city, the forsworn will still attack you but this time, the city guards will attack them as well. You can flee or fight them - just make sure you don't damage the guards or use shouts as they'll be hostile to you as well.

Note: If one does choose to side with the forsworn, please note in that trying to escape the city the ork woman who works the forges will be killed. Thus resulting in the failiure of a miscallanious task she gives you to bring her a book for (what she views) her incompetent assistant.

Option 2:

Another option is to prevent Madanach and the Forsworn from escaping. To do this, you must instead kill Madanach. (note: This is the more difficult option, note there is currently a glitch when you choose to side with the forsworn, the guards will automatically attack you and not let you bribe them or pay your bounty niether will it let you serve your sentence so i would recommend killing madanach.)

Killing Madanach is easier said then done. You have to kill him quitely so that the other prisioners won't rush to his aid. After he is dead, take the loot from his body, which will include a key to the gate just outside of his chamber. Also, check Madanach's chambers for potions. They will come in handy in the escape. (Note: You can not just pickpocket Madanach, the key will not appear until he is dead.)

The Dwemer ruins are much more dangerous without the help of the Foresworn. There will two sets of enemies which you can kill or sneak past. Since you won't have armour, I suggest killing the first, which is spiders, and sneaking by the second, usually Dwemer Spheres.

Upon leaving the mines, the Silverblood brother from the previous mission will give you back all of you possesions and thank you for, among other things, avenging his wife. He will also give you a reward (not as much as the Foresworn, but any gift is appreciated) the Silver-Blood Family Ring. This is a magical ring that will improve armour or weapons you forge by 12%.

reward

Bugs and/or Glitches

There is a glitch associated with this quest and the preceeding one, The Foresworn Conspiracy, where the Markarth guards will be stuck in the dialoge options that were present right after you were framed for murder. Therefore, they will try to arrest you on sight, and since they're not updated to know that you've already completed No One Escapes from Cidhna Mine they will not allow you to bribe them, pay your bounty or use the theives guild bribe to get out of it. Furthermore, they will not send you to jail and loop through the options again. Therefore, the only way out of the dialoge loop is to resist arrest and fight the guards, making it very hard if not impossible to continue doing quests in Markarth.

Currently, the only "fix" available is to do the Stormcloak Civil War quest, Compelling Tribute, and take over the city of Markarth, replacing the city guards with Stormcloak soldiers.

It is unclear at this time whether the glitch is present when doing The Foresworn Conspiracy and No One Escapes from Cidhna Mine in succession, or if it's just related to the former quest, independent of the later.